Balancing the Load

I got up bright and early the other morning, started the coffee and threw in a load of laundry, pulled out my basket of devotional materials and settled in for some nice quiet time.

The house was quiet, the coffee was hot and the hum of the washing machine was soothing white noise until the load got out of balance. Bang, bang, bang and then the washer tried to run again. It stopped, banged a bit and tried again to no avail. One more time I could hear it try to get started again. Finally I got up and reorganized the load, closed the lid and the machine could continue on washing that load properly.

As I sat back down and began to settle in it occurred to me how much balancing our load in life is like the washing machine! Must of us think we are those extra capacity washers don’t we? We tell life, “bring it. I can handle it.” So, life throws in a big load and we go for it.

Then somehow, the load gets tough, things get out of balance. We pause reassess, reorganize and try again. Then, bang, bang goes the load of life and we pause, again, persistent in our attempt to handle the load; we reassess, reorganize, stand up tall, throw our shoulders back knowing that this time we can handle the load. A few days go by, a few weeks or months perhaps and then our load is once again out of balance. This time… we remember.

We remember that Jesus is there. He’s there, just waiting to show us how to balance the load. To help us re-organize, re-prioritize and more often than not, if we really pay attention and we really accept His teaching, we allow Jesus to remove some of the load. He pulls it out of our extra capacity life and carries it for us. One day, we will finally accept we are not “extra capacity” and we don’t need to be. The extra is His and His alone to carry.

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.

Matthew 11:28-30 NLT

Balance – a condition in which different elements are in correct proportion.